The Famous but Poor

Fame per second and $ / sec are not necessarily correlated. I recently conducted an empirical survey and very interesting results followed.

First, let me explain the methodology :

A Fame quotient is created by checking social media followers, likes and visibility in online media. For off-line visibility/fame there is no quantitative measure available.

I had asked the “famous” whether they are rich and / or whether their fame was consistently converted into money.

THE RESULT

Less than 1% of “famous” freelancers* tell me that that they find that their social media fame has directly helped them make money. The percentage is not very encouraging, even taking into account the sample bias.

A business owner who has 30k+ follower in facebook alone tells me that he has not generated a single monetized business from this network.

An “entrepreneur” with 4000+ follower and high activity in social media says that he did not get a single business crystallization even after pitching proposals in the network.

THE WORDSMITH TEST OF FAME

I propose the following test – a litmus test sort of.

1. Spread a message in your fame network to the effect that since people have followed your activity for so many days, let them send a donation in paypal

2. Check total Paypal balance after 3 days from the post

3. If you see a balance of $ 1000+, there is a connection between fame and money.

In pre-online world, there were writers and artists who were famous but many were very poor. There still are. However, now the situation is different. Now, non-artists and non-writers can also have considerable “fame” but my research indicates that Fame is not so easy to convert into money.

For a “Famous and Poor”, the more heart-breaking news is that there are many people who are not famous but this lack of fame does not prevent them from becoming rich.

It is provocative to ask whether the search and hunt for social media fame is triggering some process which is diverting us from becoming less poor.